NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: The FCC changed course on network neutrality. Here is why you should care
I have mixed feelings about this access fee proposal. On one hand, it seems likely to make a major change in the way we experience the Internet. Big players like YouTube and Netflix will have a "fatter pipe," which will drive more viewers to their sites and away from other, smaller sites. Some of those sites will be run by amateurs (literally: devotees of whatever subject matter they deal with, whether it's Harry Potter or cute animals or whatever), others by people trying to _start_ the next Youtube or Facebook or whatever. But on a philosophical basis, I can see no reason why the government should tell a business how to structure its fees. If they want to charge their direct customers and _also_ those who want to use their "lanes" to "deliver" content, I think that's their right under the basic free market system. With one _major_ exception: the "last mile". In most cases, that uses rights-of-way that were obtained for the ISP by the local government, using Eminent Domain. I think that last mile _should_ be regulated, just as local governments regulate the rates and terms for electric power, natural gas, and water (where privately supplied). Or telephone rates, which are partly regulated by the FCC and partly by the States. So my belief is that the "backbone" -- the high-speed connections that are used by "peering" providers to talk to each other -- should be completely unregulated. But the last mile should be regulated, at least to the extent of requiring that service be provided to everybody at the same rate. If not by municipalities or States, then by the FCC. Unfortunately, the Title I/Title II bifurcation may not be flexible enough to allow this. Can the FCC consider the "backbone" to be Title I and unregulated, but apply Title II to the "last mile" providers? I don't know, and I'm not especially anxious to see it litigated in the courts. What a mess! _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad